


It's An All Night Thing

by nirvhannahcornell



Category: Pearl Jam, Soundgarden (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shops, F/M, POV Alternating, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2020-03-26 10:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 10,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19003750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirvhannahcornell/pseuds/nirvhannahcornell
Summary: Hannah, Courtney, and Leah bump into a certain four guys at a Seattle coffee shop and stay up all night with them, accompanied with chit-chat, treats, and just being overly cute.This was the very first fic I ever wrote, so the writing isn't nearly as good or elaborated like in Have Your Cake and Eat It. But I remember pulling up Word and writing it down instead of doing via spoken word like what I used to do. Salvaged from an old side blog on Tumblr when I swore I'd never see it again and put here for your viewing pleasure.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Points of view switch from Hannah to Court to Leah and then Kim has a narration, followed by two chapters of omniscient narration.
> 
> "And if it's an all night thing,  
> and we fall like a tear falling to the ground.  
> I'll never come around,  
> and you'll never hear a word from me,  
> if it's an all night thing."  
> -"All Night Thing", Temple of the Dog

“Hey, sorry we took so long, Hannah,” Court said to me. “It’s a long story but we nearly missed the bus.”  
“Stupid thing runs until eight, and here it is, seven forty-five,” Leah chimed in.  
“No, no, it’s okay,” I assured them. “Take your time. Besides, this place is open twenty-four hours, so take all the time you need.”  
I had been waiting for Court and Leah for about twenty minutes outside of the coffee shop in downtown Seattle: I have waited much, much longer for other things. But I wanted them to try this place out, a cozy little hub—recommended to me by Xana—with some of the finest coffee and treats in the Seattle area. I had just moved here myself so I wanted to test its waters with them.  
I opened the door for Court and Leah, I followed.  
The warmly-lit front room welcomed us with the aroma of fresh beans and scones taken out of the oven merely minutes ago. Reminds me of Grandma’s kitchen, I thought to myself. I directed my gaze to the very back of the room, to see one of those large comfy couches that wrap around a whole corner of the room. Leah must have seen the big couch as well because she beat me to it.  
“Let’s go sit at that couch back there.”  
The three of us ambled across the floor to the big couch; I spotted three people relaxing there already: two men sitting next to each other, and facing away from us, and talking about something in low voices; the other man sitting on the far end, against the wall, slouching into the cushions, reading a book.  
He caught my eye first-hand.   
I could tell he was fairly tall by the way his body curled and slouched, and how high his knees pointed out. He had dark, nappy hair piled on top of his head, auburn eyebrows, serious yet focused yet relaxed eyes pointed downward, an Irish nose, a very lovely and soft jawline, a cleft chin, a five o’clock shadow, and very innocent features. I could tell despite my bad eyesight he was a slender man who had filled out over time: nothing wrong with a little weight in my book. In fact, I find it very flattering… on the right kind of man, mind you.   
There was something about him that seemed very familiar, and I wasn’t sure what or why.  
Court and Leah had turned their heads to the two men facing away from us. The one on the left had a salt-and-pepper faux-hawk, gorgeous brown eyes, and handsome features; the one on the right had far shorter hair topped with a cap, lighter, prettier eyes and much softer features. The three of us recognized them almost instantaneously and simultaneously.  
“Oh my God, Mike and Jeff!” Court and Leah said in unison.  
“Well, I’ll be damned,” I smiled.  
“Shhhh!” Mike shushed them playfully, putting a finger to his lips. “No one can ever know that it’s us!” He winked at Court, who blushed slightly.  
“Well… would it be okay if we sat here with you?” Leah asked them politely.  
“Of course!” Mike pushed over to the inside corner of the couch; Court seated herself down next to him. Jeff made room for Leah next to him.   
I continued to smile at the four of them. If only… I wondered to myself.   
But then I remembered him behind me, and how familiar he appeared to me…   
I could feel his gaze on my profile. I turned to look at him: he had lifted his eyes from the pages, these beautiful jade-colored soulful eyes that I possibly could never lie to in a million years, and pointed his gaze at me.   
“Damn, girl, you’ve got some hair,” he spoke in this gruff, comforting voice. His eyes fixated on those thick wavy tendrils going all the way down to the top of my thigh, and then he glanced up at me. I turned towards him, and he got this sensual look on his handsome face. I could feel the butterflies beginning to well up a bit, and my face warm up.  
“Would it okay if I sat next to you?” I asked him sweetly.  
“Of course, doll,” he said to me in a sensuous tone. “I don’t really like sitting here alone, anyways…”  
I made my way over to him, and sank down into the cushions next to him. I couldn’t believe it.   
I was actually sitting side by side with Ben Shepherd.


	2. Chapter 2

God, I can’t believe I’m sitting right next to Mike McCready! I thought to myself. I wonder what he wants to talk about…  
“So let’s get to brass tacks. What’s your name?” Mike asked me.  
“Court. Not Courtney, though, I hate it.”  
“Oh, that’s cool. Court sounds nicer, too, you know?” He smiled slightly. He had such a beautiful smile, and those gorgeous brown eyes… I gazed into them hard, and all I wanted was to crawl inside of them and take a nap there.  
“And where are you from? You don’t look like you’re from around here.”  
“New Jersey. But I moved around a bit, and now I’m here in Seattle with Leah, who came up here with me—” I turned to Leah, who was snuggled up next to Jeff. “—and Hannah, who came up here separately.” I glanced over at Hannah, who sank down in the couch next to Ben.  
“Awesome! What kind of music do you like?”  
I opened my mouth to reply, but Jeff raising his voice and Ben’s laughter interrupted me.  
I looked over at Leah and Jeff: Leah had snatched his hat and held it out of his reach.  
“Gimme back my hat!” he demanded.  
“What’s the magic word—?”  
Mike continued to smile, and I chuckled and turned my head over to Ben and Hannah: he was laughing so hard, his face reddened a bit and he leaned forward.  
“Oh, fuck, I haven’t laughed like that in a long time, man…” he declared, leaning back and rubbing his right eye.  
I turned back to Mike, and then I remembered.  
“Oh! I like Pearl Jam, Mad Season, Alice in Chains, KISS, the Chili Peppers—“  
“Who’s your favorite PJ member?” he asked me, his smile returning.  
“Hmmm…” I pondered with a hint of sarcasm, pointing my eyes up at the wooden ceiling, and then returning my gaze to him, locking onto his eyes once again.  
“Me?!” He placed a hand on his chest.  
I nodded, grinning. “Yeah, you’re my favorite musician! You and Layne Staley and many, many more.”  
“And you like KISS? Ooh! Who’s your favorite member?” He raised his eyebrows.  
“Why, Ace Frehley, of course.”  
He slightly gasped, and then leaned forward as if he was telling me a secret.  
“ACE FREHLEY IS GOD,” he whispered enthusiastically.  
As soon as he said that, Jeff stood to his feet and walked over to the front counter to order us some coffee and food.  
We all ordered Seattle’s finest coffee; me, him, Leah, and Mike all asked for raspberry scones, Ben and Hannah wanted blueberry muffins. Jeff returned with six glasses of water for each of us, placed each down on a coaster on the table in front of Mike and me. Mike reached forward to take a drink from his glass.  
“Mm, hits the spot.” He then glanced back at me. He took a good look at me, not blinking once. The two of us gazed into each other’s eyes, locking onto one another like a key unlocking the door to the universe and all that I wanted to understand and believe. I slid into his eyes, not flinching once. I wandered through that maze of chocolate-colored darkness, wanting to delve deep into that complex soul, and feel every fathom and caress of it. He tapped into my light-colored eyes, like chipping through a sheet of frost on a window, and then diving right in, like he was swimming in a massive ocean on a cloudless day, with just a perfect amount of marine layer. He wanted to know more, like how I wanted to know more.  
“I get the feeling you and I are going to get along just fine, Court,” he said out of the blue. His warm, welcoming smile returned once again. I cleared my throat.  
“I agree, Mike,” I replied, smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

I hunkered down next to Jeff on the close end of the couch.  
“So,” he started, “may I ask what your name is?”  
“I’m Leah. And that’s Court—” I glanced over at Court, who was making acquaintance with Mike.   
“—and that’s Hannah—” I pointed my glance to Hannah, who snuggled down next to Ben on the far end of the giant couch.   
Jeff nodded. “Right on,” he said nicely.  
“—and I got your hat!” I reached up and snatched the cap off his head.  
“Hey!” he raised his voice.  
I held his hat far out of his reach. He tried to reach for his hat, but I slid onto the arm of the couch to keep it further away from him.  
“Gimme back my hat!” he demanded.  
“What’s the magic word—?”  
As soon as I asked him that, I glanced over at Ben, whose face was as red as an apple, and then rubbed his right eye.  
“Oh, fuck, I haven’t laughed like that in a long time,” I heard him say in a low voice.  
I turned back to Jeff, and then inwardly gasped; he suspended himself about an inch away from my body, and rested his right hand on my upper thigh, and then he looked down into my eyes. He leaned downward and then kissed me lightly on the mouth.   
His kiss caught me and him both off-guard, because he pulled back, and then sat back down. I quickly handed him back his hat, and he set it back onto the crown of his head, and then bowed his head. I noticed his face reddening, and I could feel my face beginning to grow hot. I could tell he had butterflies in his stomach.  
“Um…” his voice broke, “can I—get you something?”  
“Yes please,” I said immediately.  
He got to his feet, and then walked over to the front counter to order us something to eat and drink. He turned to me.  
“What would you like?”  
“Raspberry scones, if they have them?” I turned my head to Court and Mike. “Court, would you guys like them, too?”   
“Yes, please,” the two of them nodded.  
“And coffee?” The three of us agreed.  
Jeff glanced over at Ben and Hannah.  
“How ‘bout you guys?”  
“Blueberry muffins,” the two of them said in unison. They then gaped at each other for some reason.  
“They… just sound good right now,” Hannah said slowly.  
“Yeah…” Ben seemed to be in a trance.  
“I’m gonna assume you guys want coffee, too.” The two of them approved.  
“Oh! And can we get water for all of us, too, please?” Jeff asked the woman at the front counter.  
He returned with six glasses of cold water, placing each one on a coaster on the table in front of Court and Mike.   
Jeff seated himself back down next to me. He took a drink from his glass, his head still bowed, hiding his face in the shadow of the bill of his cap, and gazed off into the distance. I could only imagine what was running through that brain of his. He set his glass back down, and then turned to me.  
“Listen,” he said to me in a near-whisper, “if I—”   
He shifted his weight a bit. “—if I caught you off-guard at all with that, my apologies.”  
The butterflies welled up again in my stomach. I cleared my throat, and then took a deep breath.  
“No,” I replied to him in an equal near-whisper. “No, no, no, it’s okay. Because in all honesty—” I glanced around to see if anyone had their eyes on us. The six of us were the only ones in the coffee shop, but it was as if the entire world stared us down.  
“—I would’ve done the same thing, Jeff.” He gazed at me, and smirked slightly, and I smirked back.  
“This is going to go well for us, Leah,” he whispered to me, raising an eyebrow in a sensuous manner.


	4. Chapter 4

“You look familiar,” he said to me, closing his book, and then setting it on his lap. “I don’t know why either.”  
“That’s interesting,” I replied. I dropped my gaze to the book he had been reading, and then gasped. “You’re reading T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland?”  
“Yep,” he answered, continuing to gaze at me. “Good poetry’s where it’s at, isn’t it?” He smiled that beautiful warm smile.  
“Hell yeah,” I nodded in agreement. I nestled myself closer to him—he was so warm!—then I cleared my throat.   
“My name is Hannah.”  
“My name is Hunter, but I go by my middle name, which is Ben.”  
“…and I go by my middle name which is Bubbles.”  
He let out this big Goldie Hahn-style laugh, one that I, in all honesty, never heard fly out from a man. He leaned forward, and his face reddened to the color of a cherry. I grinned, and noticed tears emerging from his eyes.  
He brushed the tears away, and then slowly but surely caught his breath. As soon as he began to breathe normally, I spotted Leah had snatched Jeff’s hat and held it out of his reach.  
“Gimme back my hat!” Jeff demanded.  
“What’s the magic word—?”  
Ben glanced back at me, his face still blood red as the sky during a sunrise.  
“Oh, fuck, I haven’t laughed like that in a long time,” he confessed in a hoarse voice.  
He leaned back, and then returned his gaze to mine.  
“So…” he started. “…even though you look familiar, you don’t look familiar from around here, so, my dear, tell your story. Where do you come from?”  
“Well, originally I’m from Reno, but then I moved to Central California, and then to southern Oregon, and now I’m here in Seattle. I came up separately from Court and Leah here.”  
“So you’ve moved around quite a bit. That’s interesting because…” He paused for a moment, reaching into his memory. “…I’ve moved around quite a bit myself. And at this point, I consider myself to have seen the world.”  
“Me, too,” I confessed, “and there are some interesting people out there.”  
“Yes, there is,” he nodded, “but you know if you look in the right places—“  
“—there’s good people everywhere,” I finished his sentence.  
He gaped at me. He was about to say something but was interrupted by Jeff, who stood at the front counter, ordering us things to eat and drink.  
“How ‘bout you guys?”  
“Blueberry muffins,” the two of us called out in unison. We gaped at each other, staring into each other’s eyes hypnotically.  
“They… just sound good right now,” I said slowly.  
“Yeah…” Ben seemed to be in a trance.  
“I’m gonna assume you guys want coffee, too,” Jeff called out.  
“Yes, please,” I replied. Ben blinked a couple of times.  
“The fact that you and I both thought of the exact same thing and the same time,” he searched for the correct words, and then lowered his voice, “…kinda turns me on a bit.” This cute little smirk crept across his handsome face, a smirk that warmed my heart. He blinked again, and swallowed his temptations down.  
“Anyways, the other thing I was going to ask you was what kind of music do you like?”  
“I listen to anything and everything.”  
“Me, too. You know? There’s only a few things I won’t listen to…” he said, nodding and smiling when he noticed me smiling in agreement over the same statement. He then furrowed his brow a bit, “how ‘bout mine? What do you think of mine?”  
“I love it,” I replied sweetly. Then I leaned forward, and began to whisper. “Your music is what keeps me sane.”  
“So it’d be okay by you if I continued and wrote more?”  
“Of course! Ben…” I shifted my weight to find the correct words. “…if no one else will fully support you, I will. Forever.”  
That warm, beautiful smile returned once again. His eyes turned, and he gazed into space, and his head began to nod, as if he could hear music in his head already. He returned his gaze to me.  
“I’ve got a good feeling about you and me, Hannah,” he admitted.  
“I do, too,” I said almost immediately.


	5. Chapter 5

“So you come from back East?”  
“Yeah. It was alright. I wanted to be here, though.”  
“Oh, nice! So what about Sea-Town attracted you so much?”  
“Well, Leah and I wanted to start a band, and Hannah wants to be an artist, and maybe we can get her to be our artist or something like that…” I glanced over at Hannah, who had taken her sketchbook out of her purse, and was flipping through the pages, looking for something. She looked so small next to big Ben.  
“Cool! What instrument do you play?”  
“I play guitar and drums… oh! And I also sing. I don’t want us to be a cover band, though.”  
“Right on! I wouldn’t want to be in a cover band either. Write your own material, play your own material, no matter how tricky it may seem.”  
“Exactly! Why do covers of other people’s stuff when you could write your own?”  
Mike continued to smile, and his eyes sparkled. He opened his mouth to say something, but something else caught his eye. We turned our heads in Jeff and Leah’s direction, to see Jeff doing what looked like Jazzercise.  
“The hell are you doing?” Mike called out.  
“Celebrate me!” Jeff exclaimed, his voice jerking with every jump.  
“Hey, cut it out, man, what if something breaks?” Ben said to him.  
Jeff then stopped and stood in place in front of Leah.  
“You heard the man,” I heard Leah say saucily, “now sit your cute little heinie back down next to me.” Jeff then seated himself back down next to her, and the two of them burst into laughter. Mike continued to smile, and then turned back to me.  
“And, you said you liked Mad Season, too?”  
“Yeah! I love Mad Season, mainly because it was under the direction of you and Layne, my two favorite musicians ever.”  
“Yeah…” Mike lowered his gaze, his eyes saddening and losing their luster a bit.  
“What’s wrong?”  
He sighed through his nose. “It’s just…” He closed his eyes and bowed his head. I could tell there was something heavy weighing down on his mind, something about Mad Season that made him return to a certain part of his memory, and realize—  
“It’s just… I miss Layne, man,” he admitted in a low voice, opening his eyes and gazing at me. “It was so cool to work with him, during that time. He was an amazing man who really stayed true to himself, and he was so kind and gentle, and one of the more emotional writers I’ve ever come across, hands-down, without a doubt.” He shook his head, and closed his eyes again. “It was like the universe wanted us to cross paths and work together for the time being. And then one thing led to another, and well… you know the story…” His voice trailed off. I sighed through my nose and hunkered down closer to him.  
“To this day, I still can’t believe he’s gone. I miss him every day.”  
“I do, too,” I said in low voice.  
“Have you had dreams where… you were outside of his apartment the day he—you know—” He literally mouthed the words “you know” “—and knocked on his door, saving his life?”  
“Yeah, I have them all the time. Where you think you could’ve potentially saved his life, but then you wake up and realize it was all a dream…”  
“Yeah, that just—” he stopped. “—that absolutely kills me. That’s why…” He looked to his left, past the couch, to see if anyone was watching. “…don’t ever be afraid to lend your hand to someone who needs it, because you never know what’s going on underneath that demeanor.” He raised his gaze over to Ben.  
“Am I right?” Mike asked him.  
“Right about what?”  
“You know…”  
Ben was about to reply but someone entering the coffee house interrupted him.  
“Hey, Kim!” he called out to Kim Thayil, who walked towards us and the giant couch.  
“Oh, cool! Kim’s here!” Mike declared.  
I get to meet Mike McCready and Kim Thayil all in one night. Good things come to people who wait and make good decisions about certain places.


	6. Chapter 6

“Um…” Jeff began, turning his eyes to the side.  
I looked at him, raising my eyebrows.  
“What’s up?”  
“I was going to ask you something, I wasn’t sure what, though.”  
“Hmmm…” I thought about it for a minute.   
“Oh! No, wait, that wasn’t it…”  
I brought a hand up to my face and stroked my chin in contemplation. Maybe that kiss threw him off, I thought to myself. Wait a minute.   
Kissing him threw him off, in other words, controlled him, in other words, I can do whatever I damn well please with him.  
“You could do Jazzercise. You know, you could make Dave Grohl and dance around like a madman.”  
“Wait, here?”  
“Yeah.”  
“What if I break something?”  
“Doesn’t matter, things can be replaced, all that matters is that you clear your head.” He thought about what I said for a minute.  
“Eh, what the hell…” He got to his feet, standing about a foot right in front of me. He began to Jazzercise for me, terribly, I might add.  
“The hell are you doing?” Mike called out.  
“Celebrate me!” Jeff exclaimed, imitating Dave, his voice jerking with every jump.  
“Hey, cut it out, man, what if something breaks?” I heard Ben say.  
Jeff then stopped, standing right in front of me once again.  
“You heard the man,” I said saucily, “now sit your cute little heinie back down next to me.” He seated himself back down next to me, never taking his eyes off of me once. We spontaneously and simultaneously combusted into laughter.  
“Oh! Now I remember what I was going to ask you,” he told me, “where are you from?”  
“I come from a land far, far away and was born a long, long, long, long time ago.”  
He chuckled, his face reddening again.  
“And what kind of music do you like? Like, who’s your favorite band?”  
“Oh, Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden…”  
“Ahhh, cool! You know, I had a feeling you liked MLB, not sure why either…”  
Something caught my eye. I glanced down to see he had rested his hand on the couch cushion not too far from mine.  
“Andy is like my inspiration and my spirit guide,” I said truthfully.  
“Like, in writing and things like that?”  
“Oh, yeah. I like you, too, though,” I lowered my voice and raised my eyebrows on that last statement.  
“I miss Andy,” he sighed. “He was incredible. He was a rock star, and he knew it, too.” He dropped his gaze to the floor, and sighed through his nose.   
“He was another one who went away too soon, you know?” the tone of his voice darkened a bit as I nodded my head.  
He was also another one who I wish I could’ve done something to help him…”   
I glanced down to see his hand creeping closer to mine.  
“When someone cries out for help, you help ‘em,” I said to him, directing my gaze back to him.  
“Absolutely,” he agreed, looking back at me. “Don’t do what I did, actually… I think it’d be more like, don’t do what I didn’t do. I mean, do what I didn’t do. There we go.”  
A noise at the front door caught our attention.  
“Hey, Kim!” Ben called out.  
I sat up and turned my head to see Kim Thayil himself walking towards the six of us.  
“Oh, cool! Kim’s here!” I heard Mike rejoice.  
“Kim’s cool, you’ll like him a lot,” Jeff promised me.  
“I hope he’s cool,” I said saucily, “hell, I think the temperature of this room just dropped a couple of degrees.”  
Jeff snickered. “You should tell him that, you know, for shits and giggles.”  
I wondered exactly what Kim say to us, and why he was here with us.


	7. Chapter 7

“Do you play any instruments?”  
“Yes! I play guitar, and bass, and I also sing, but not in front of people.”  
“Not in front of people?” He furrowed his brow a bit.  
“Not in front of people. It’s kind of a nervous thing I have…” My voice trailed off.  
“Now, that I understand. I suffer from nervousness all the time; all it just means is you’re human. Like do you ever get that fluttery feeling in your stomach when you’re showing something to your family?”  
“Oh, yeah. I get that all the time when I’m showing off my drawings. This, of course, depends on the people I’m showing them to, like I’m actually more comfortable with friends.”  
“You draw?”  
“Yes.”  
“Do you have some with you?”  
“Yes, and I actually have a couple of drawings of you that I’ve been wanting to give to you.”  
His eyes lit up and his face softened. “Really? May I please see them?”  
“Of course. I wouldn’t make them for you if I wasn’t going to show them to you.” I turned to my left and rummaged through my purse to find my sketchbook. I flipped through the pages to find Ben’s two drawings. Then I remembered where I put them—  
I turned my sketchbook over to the cardboard backing, where I had sleeved some loose pages: the two drawings I had covered with wax paper. I unsheathed the first one.  
“Holy mother of Jesus, that’s amazing.” I handed Ben the first one of him, based off a photo of him from around 1991, playing his bass and his bushy hair pushed over his eyes: done with my woodless colored pencils.  
“I made this about a week and a half after I saw Soundgarden.” He was speechless. I could tell he was retrogressing a bit, as he caressed the fine lines and soft colors.  
“And then this one—” I was interrupted by Jeff jumping around and doing what looked like Jazzercise.  
“The hell are you doing?” Mike called out.  
“Celebrate me!” Jeff exclaimed.  
“Hey, cut it out, man, what if something breaks?” Ben pointed out.  
Jeff then stopped, standing directly in front of Leah. I heard Leah say something, and then Jeff seated himself back down next to her, and then the two of them busted out laughing.  
Ben returned his gaze back to me.  
“And this other one—?” I handed him a graphite drawing of him, from the same era, one with his dark hair draped down over his face, and his lovely eyes gazing off into the distance.  
“Oh…” he breathed. I watched his chest lift and then depress in a heavy, retrogressive sigh. I could tell he was thinking about his twenties, and those times…  
A noise at the front door brought him back down to planet Earth. I glanced over at the door to see a tall, dark-skinned man with a fedora, sleepy eyes, and a grey beard striding towards the six of us.  
“Hey, Kim!” Ben called out to Kim Thayil.  
“Ahhh, cool! Kim’s here!” I heard Mike say.  
“I get to meet Ben Shepherd and Mike McCready and Jeff Ament and Kim Thayil all in the same night, with my friends,” I said to myself. “Let’s just hope this isn’t a dream…”


	8. Chapter 8

I spotted Ben immediately, back there up against the wall on the far end of the wrap-around couch in the way back of the coffee house. A young woman with dark hair and a sketchbook was seated next to him; she seemed so small compared to him. In the corner part of the couch, I noticed Mike and another young woman who reminded me of Eddie; facing away from me were Jeff and a third young woman with jet-black hair.  
“Hey, guys,” I greeted them as I stopped in front of Jeff and the third young woman. “Did—Did I miss something here? What’s happening?”  
“This is Leah,” Jeff introduced her, “or what I’m calling her L’eah the Love Child.”  
“L’eah the Love Child,” I said thoughtfully, sitting down on the arm of the couch, “I can dig it.”  
“I don’t have my white mask, though,” Leah said dryly, “I must’ve left it with my other other other robe.”  
I snickered a bit. “Do you have a purple bass, too?”  
“Nah, it’s red and black, like my soul.”  
I glanced over at Mike and the second young woman.  
“The name’s Court,” she introduced herself.   
“Not Courtney, though, we strongly dislike the name Courtney,” Mike chimed in.  
“Court sounds nicer, too, you know?” I agreed. “By the way, has anyone ever told you that you could be the female doppelganger for Eddie?”  
“Oh, I get that all the time,” she admitted, “I probably could very well be, like in a movie or something like that.”  
I was liking where all of this was going; I peered over at the far corner, where Ben and this lovely woman were hunkered down together.  
“My name is Hannah,” she said to me in probably the oddest-sounding voice I’ve ever heard come out of a woman, “and I have no idea what I’m doing.”  
“That’s not what you told me,” Ben chided. Classic Ben, never missing a beat.  
“You guys look beautiful together,” I told them, “like, you guys look as though you were made for one another.”  
The two of them glanced at each other.  
“It’s possible,” Hannah shrugged.  
“Kim, look what she gave me.” Ben held up this drawing of him when he was a young buck, playing his bass. Mike and Jeff’s mouths dropped open at the sight of it.  
“Oh, wow, did you draw that?” I asked her.  
“Yeppers. Done with my… woodless colored pencils,” she explained, blinking.  
“She gave me this, too,” he placed the first drawing of him on his lap, and then held up another one, still from the same time period, but just him.  
“I can’t even tell if that’s a drawing or a photograph,” Mike complimented.  
“Ooh! Ooh! Do me next!” Jeff said enthusiastically.  
She chuckled this light little chuckle, like two champagne glasses tinkling together.  
“Well… I do have to draw something to get back into the groove…” she confessed.  
“Yay!” we all laughed.  
“So what’s up, man?” Mike asked me.  
“What’s up, and what’s going down…” Leah started singing.  
“In every city and every town!” Hannah joined in. Everyone glanced at Court.  
“I forget the rest,” she confessed.  
“You’re supposed to join in with them!” Mike cracked. We laughed some more.  
“Eh, it’s alright, not everyone knows L7,” I said assuringly. Then I turned back to Mike. “Anyways, nothing much, just wanted to drop by and say ‘hola.’ So, ‘hola’!” More laughter.  
“More like ‘HOLLAH’!” Ben joked. Laughter erupted quicker than the volcanic eruption in Iceland.  
“Also… um… ladies?” The three women turned their heads to me.  
“Can I get a moment with your boys?”  
“For a second there, I could’ve sworn you were going to say ‘can I get a hot tub?!’” Hannah said with a straight face. The seven of us busted up into laughter yet again.  
“But yeah, we can leave you boys alone,” Leah piped up, standing up, “…for now, that is.”  
“We could use a moment alone, too,” I heard Court say.  
The three of them stood up and made their way to the hallway on the other side of the room, leaving the four of us alone to talk about something.


	9. Chapter 9

“Those girls, man,” Mike continued to smile.  
“Tell me about it…” Jeff leaned back into the couch cushion, his face reddening yet again.  
Kim glanced over at Ben, who continued to swoon over Hannah’s drawings. His eyes never left either of them for a second. He retrogressed to those times, back when times were good and innocent, and if he and Hannah ever met during that time, he would… in a heartbeat…  
“I can’t believe I actually did that—” Jeff was saying.  
“What’d you do?” Mike asked inquiringly.  
“I—” Kim looked over at Jeff, who had closed his eyes, searching for the correct words, and his face as red as a stoplight.  
“—kissed Leah on the mouth.”  
Mike blinked a few times. Kim tilted his head to the side. Ben glanced up at him, and furrowed his brow, and then shrugged.  
“So?” His dark yet soft voice cut through the silence like a knife.  
“So? So? I…” Jeff bit his lower lip.  
“Did you do it on impulse?” Ben asked him.  
“More or less,” he said reluctantly.  
“Okay, then. Did you like it?”  
“Huh?!” Mike was caught off-guard.  
“Did you like it?”  
“Um—” Jeff directed his eyes off to the side. And then mouthed, “—actually yeah.”  
“Okay, then. You guys are both human beings, she’s a girl, you’re a guy, and if you account age into your actions, age becomes totally irrelevant. So, if that’s what you’re flipping out over, don’t. Like, per se, Hannah—”  
Ben returned his gaze to Hannah’s drawings. His stomach twisted into little butterflies and his heart warmed and grew a thin layer of soft fuzz.  
“—I think Hannah just won my heart.”  
“Aw!” Mike cooed.  
“I can also tell you guys this…” Ben glanced around to see if the world was watching. The coast was clear. “…she’s a tormented soul, someone who’s been broken and shattered by life, someone who’s ventured through hell one too many times… I can see it in her eyes, I can hear it in her voice, and most of all, I can see it in her art.”  
“What are you saying?” Kim asked him in a soft voice. He lifted his gaze into space.  
“I’m… not sure,” he admitted hesitantly.  
“Well, Court and I have one hell of a connection, too,” Mike chimed in.  
“Really?” Ben raised an eyebrow.  
“Yeah! We like the same kind of music, but,” Mike lowered his voice a notch, “I think the biggest thing is we both miss Layne, and we both feel connections to him. I’m not sure if we have a thing like you and Leah…” he raised his eyebrows and dropped his gaze when he said the word “thing”, “…or a connection like between you and Hannah, but it’s something special, you know?”  
“I think your food’s ready, guys,” Kim pointed out.  
“And lo, and behold, it is,” Ben got to his feet, and then walked over to the hallway where Court, Leah, and Hannah congregated around the corner.  
“Hey, you’s,” he said with a little smirk, “soup’s on.”  
“Okay, babe,” Hannah replied sweetly. Ben stopped right in his tracks.


	10. Chapter 10

“I can’t believe this is actually happening!” Court said gushingly as the three of them turned the corner, out of earshot.  
“Wow…” Leah breathed, sinking to the floor.  
“Oh, Ben…” Hannah said sensually, running her hands through her hair, and then sighing inwardly.  
“I’m actually getting to talk to Mike, and it’s totally mutual!” Leah and Hannah glanced over at Court.  
“Is it going like with me and Jeff, or her and Ben?” Leah asked.  
“Huh?”  
“Like how’s the nature of it?” Hannah added.  
“Oh my God… he’s so much nicer and handsome in person, and we just totally got lost each other’s eyes. We both like the same things, and we both miss Layne so much… Ugh, when he and I get together, it’s like magic, you guys!”  
“I’m still trying to get over the fact that Jeff actually kissed me and touched my thigh…” Leah’s voice trailed off.  
Court and Hannah fell silent.  
“WHAT,” they both demanded in unison.  
“YEAH,” she replied right then and there. “I also made him do Jazzercise for me and he almost held my hand, too. He’s my slave, now. Oh, man…”  
She raised her eyebrows. “I think this is going to get interesting you guys…”   
She turned to look at Hannah, who had her mind on one and only one thing—Ben!  
“So how’s it with you two?”  
“We have so much in common, it’s terrifying,” Hannah said softly. “Like we finish each other’s sentences, and we both like the same things, and… when I gave him those drawings, it was like he was a young man again, and we totally won each other over…” She sighed through her nose.  
“What are you saying?” Court asked her.  
“I’m not sure…” Hannah admitted. “I’m thinking he’s going to ask me something. I can feel it…”  
The three of them could hear footsteps walking towards the hallway. They turned their heads to see Ben poking his head around the corner.   
“Hey, you’s,” he smirked, “soup’s on.”  
“Okay, babe,” Hannah blurted out sweetly.  
Ben stopped in his tracks.


	11. Chapter 11

“I’m sorry?” he blinked twice, and stared at Hannah.  
“I mean…” She quieted down significantly, and swallowed. I noticed her face changing into a light pink.  
“…okay, Ben,” she said slowly.  
He furrowed his brow again, and then nodded.  
“Help me up…” Leah reached out to me and Hannah to help her up. We walked out from around the corner, and back into the front room, where our three men were reaching for their coffee mugs.  
I sat back down next to Mike; Leah next to Jeff; Hannah next to Ben.  
“You want anything, Kim?” Mike asked him.  
“No, thanks, man, I’m good,” Kim replied, who seated himself in a recliner across the floor from Ben and Hannah. He opened a dark green paperback book: I couldn’t tell what title book he was reading; he had his nose in the book before Mike said another word.  
He turned back to me.  
“So,” he began, smiling once again, “have you ladies found a place yet? What do you think of it here so far?”  
“We have found a place, in fact,” I replied, “over in West Seattle. I think Hannah did, too.”  
“Ahhh, cool! Overlooking the Sound?”  
“Yep! We’re not too far from anybody, I would think…”  
“No, you’re not. Actually…” He looked around, and then turned back to me. “…are you guys near the shore?”  
“We’re about a five-minute walk from the shore.”  
“There’s a place on the shore looking out west, to the islands across the Sound, where I would often go to, you know, it’d be just me. And often times I would just sit, and watch the clouds roll in from the north, and cover the mountains across the Sound, past the islands. It was weird, too, it’d be sunny over here, but over there, it’d get really cloudy, and then the clouds would wonder their way over here, so the weather got really unpredictable. Oh, God, that reminds me, you wanna hear a story?”  
“Yeah!” I said, taking a bite out of scone.  
“Okay… I can’t remember what year this was—I think this was 1991, or something like that—but I was out there one day, and it was… about mid-day. Not a cloud in the sky. I look across the Sound and there’s this guy in a motorboat, I mean, this guy was hauling ass. I look closer, and this guy is drunk as all hell. Then he just stops. I mean, totally stops right in the middle of the water. I turn to my right, and I see these little puffy clouds to the north, you know, nothing too large. I look back at this guy, and he’s all stumbling around and shit, and his wife, or girlfriend, or whatever, comes out from underneath the deck, and goes—” He reached out his arm, opened his hand, and made a slapping motion. “—and slaps in the back of the head, too, I might add—” Then he raised his voice a whole entire octave. “—‘next time you go that fast, I’m gonna make sure the only thing you break is the speed limit!’”  
I covered my mouth to keep myself from choking on my scone.  
“Oh my God!” I whispered with my mouth full.  
“I know!” he chuckled. “Here, have some coffee, don’t choke on me, Court…”  
“What?” Leah said out of the blue.  
“Huh?” Mike turned to peer at her, and raised an eyebrow.  
“I…” Jeff’s face was as red as a tomato.  
I took a swig of coffee, and then lowered my mug to look at the three of them.  
“What is even going on?”  
Leah glanced at Jeff, who took his hat off and fanned himself. Mike had furrowed his brow like Ben, and I was totally lost.  
“Man, it just got really quiet over there,” Kim called out, setting his book down on his lap.  
Ben and Hannah turned their heads to look at us.  
“I don’t even know what just happened,” I confessed.   
“Nevermind, it’s not important,” Mike said, shaking his head, closing his eyes, and holding up his hand. Jeff turned back to Leah, Ben and Hannah continued with their conversation, and Kim returned to reading his book.  
“But I want to know,” I coaxed him.  
He lowered the tone of his voice.  
“Basically, when I said, ‘don’t choke on me,’ I guess Leah kinda took that out of context and—”  
I opened my mouth to gape at him.  
“Oh my God,” I mouthed.  
He nodded, his smile soon returning.  
“I don’t want you to think about anything like that, especially with me.”  
“I don’t either. I think you’re adorable and handsome, though. But…” I shook my head. “…nothing like that,” I said in a whisper.  
“Good, ‘cause the Mrs. would kill me.”  
“So, continue!” I took another swig of coffee, as did he.  
“Anyways, she comes out and does that to him, and then they turn around, and they see me. ‘Oh, God, it’s Mike McCready!’ You know, that whole shindig. They’re about thirty or so feet away from me, just out in the water. I’m sitting on the beach all cross-legged. I look to my right again, and I see those little puffy clouds had become these big, ominous thunderheads. And I’m like, ‘oh, jeez, I better bail: this is going to get crazy in a minute…’ So I stand up, and they’re like, ‘wait, where’s he going?’  
“Next thing I know, the wind picks up, and the sun disappears, and it’s totally dark out. I look at them, and they’re trying to scramble underneath the deck of the boat, well he was, anyways, she had told him to go underneath, and she took the wheel. There’s a reason why they tell you not to go swimming during a thunderstorm, much less go motor-boating. So she fires it into gear, and starts to drive this thing to the dock, which is about ten or so yards away from me. I had gotten to shelter already, under like this awning on this nearby building, so I’m watching this whole thing go down, and I’m thinking, ‘how the hell is this going to go, and what the hell does this mean for me…’   
“So she drives this thing to the dock. She gets out, and calls his name. Nothin’. So she runs back, and disappears. And I’m thinking, ‘ah, crap, I’m going to have to go into that surf and see if they’re alright.’ So I run over there, and it’s pouring, just raining cats and dogs. I get onto the dock, and it’s slippery as all hell. There’s rainwater in my eyes, I’m running blind, basically. But then I see her and him, he’s passed out, and she’s trying to pick him up, and carry him in her arms onto the dock, and to safety.  
“I call out to her, ‘Hey!’ She looks up at me, sees me, and goes, ‘little help?’ So I crouch down to get him, he was big, too, bigger than Ben, and heavy, like Glenn Danzig. I put my arms under his shoulders so I could get a good grip on him, and then with all my might, I pulled him onto the dock, and under the awning there.” He took another swig of coffee, and then continued.  
“Then I reached out to take her hand, and I helped out of the boat. So then she runs to the awning to be by his side. There weren’t any cell phones then, so I couldn’t call 911, but I did see some passersby over at the building where I was at originally. I was going to run to them, and then this big-ass wave comes up, and just washes over us. I held my breath, and fell to my knees. I’m soaking wet, the water falls away, I look up at them, and she’s okay, he’s still out, but they’re safe, though. I look down, and my shirt is actually missing. The surf actually took my shirt! So I just went, ‘eh, what the hell,’ and then I got to my feet, and ran to the people over by the other awning to get their help, and they came over to the couple—I guess one of them must’ve ran inside and called 911, because the other one said the ambulance will be there soon. So, yeah.”  
He smiled at me.  
“Awesome! You saved two people’s lives!”  
“It’s one of the best feelings in the world, too. You know? You may not be the best person in the world on the cover, but doing an act of good such as that will really show your character and your spirit.”  
We both nodded our heads in agreement.  
“Is that the sun?” Leah asked out loud.  
We turned our heads to look out the front windows. The first rays of sunlight shone down on the streets of Seattle. The six of us had actually talked all night long; the hours went by like minutes with us. Kim had fallen asleep in the recliner.  
“I’m not even tired,” Mike admitted.  
“Me, neither,” I added.  
“But I better get going, though, before Jeffrey and I get into trouble.”  
I stood up and stretched my legs. Oh, how nice it was to finally stand up after hours of sitting in one place. He got to his feet, and walked over to Jeff, who was sitting on his knees, and had tied his kerchief around his neck like a scarf, and then covered his mouth like one of those old timey bandits.  
“I’m not even going to ask,” Mike said, shaking his head.  
“You don’t want to know,” Jeff replied flatly.  
“We need to get to the studio before we get into trouble.”  
Jeff glanced at his watch, and noticed the time.  
“Oh, crapola, we do!” He glanced back at Leah. “Next time?”  
“Hell’s yeah,” she said, smirking slightly.  
Mike turned to Ben and Hannah, both of them already on their feet.  
“What are you two birds gonna do?”  
They turned to each other.  
“Ohhh, that’s for us and us only to know. We’ll send you a postcard, though,” Ben explained in his dark voice. He glanced at Hannah and winked at her. She blushed a bit.  
Ben shook Kim awake, and the seven of us walked outside into the morning.  
“Will we cross paths again?” I asked Mike.  
“Oh, I’m sure we will,” he assured me. “I’m positive of it.” He continue to smile that handsome smile as our paths directed away from each other for the time being.


	12. Chapter 12

“I’m sorry?” Ben blinked twice, staring at me.  
My whole mind went blank as I tried to search for the correct words.  
“I mean…” I swallowed once. My throat was dry, dry as a bone. I could feel my face began to grow warm.  
“…okay, Ben,” I choked out.  
He furrowed his brow a bit, and then nodded.  
“Help me up,” Leah reached out her hands for us to help her up. We walked out from around the corner, into the hallway, and into the front room, where the three of them were reaching for their coffee mugs.  
I sat back down next to Ben; Leah next to Jeff; Court next to Mike.  
“You want anything, Kim?” Mike asked him.  
“No, thanks, man, I’m good,” Kim replied, who seated himself in a recliner across the floor from Ben and me. He opened up a dark green paperback book: Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Oh, how I adore men with good taste in poetry…  
I fetched up an admiring sigh as Ben set his mug back down on the coaster on the table in front of us and Kim shoved his nose into the book.  
“What—?” Ben glanced at me with a slight smirk.  
“What Kim is reading,” I pointed out.  
He turned his gaze over to the book of poetry Kim was reading, and then smiled.  
“Oh, yeah. Remember what I said, good poetry is where it’s at. That makes me wonder, since you’re bit of a musician, do you write at all?”  
“Every now and then,” I explained, “I’m actually more of a story writer than anything. I love story writing.”  
“Well, I would view songwriting as a form of story writing. I would, anyways…”  
I thought about it for a moment.  
“Actually, yeah. You’re telling a story artistically, and poetically, and from your heart and mind, and that’s honestly how I feel stories should be written. I want people to picture it with me in a way, but if I really want to say something, I’ll just come out and say it wing bang boom, no questions asked.”  
“That’s the kicker,” he said, nodding his head. “The other reason why I asked you that is while you were flipping through your sketchbook, I noticed another journal in your purse. The last thing I want to come off as is nosy, but something told me that was like a writing journal or something like that…”  
“That’s my personal journal, where I write down my deepest, darkest thoughts about everything that goes on. I also keep a few poetic lines in there, too, but for the most part, I feel that if I want to say something, but I don’t want anyone else to see it because it might stir up some trouble, I’ll write it there in my journal, and not on like a blog or something. I feel that it’s better that way than let the whole damn world about it. Thoughts like that should be intimate, shared in a closed space, unless you really want to tell people something really huge that they should know.”  
“It’s funny; I’m the exact same way. You know? It really bothers me when I see people going on and on about their lives constantly on social media, and it’s like, ‘listen people, if you really want to fix your problems, get off your computer, get up off your butt, and go fix it. It may or may not be that simple to fix, but that’s what you do: you do things yourself if no one else will do them.’” He took a bite of muffin and another sip of coffee.  
“Yes! There’s a lot of things about this world that really piss me off, and there’s a lot about the world that I don’t understand, but I’m not going to sit and waste my time talking about that stuff on the Internet when I could be talking about good things that have happened, or things that I like, and then go on with my day in a good light, making art or writing stories. Why waste your time talking about things you don’t like when you could be wasting your time talking about things that you do like?”  
“It’s that simple.” He nodded and then glanced around to see if anyone was watching us. The coast was, yet again, clear.  
“So, again, I don’t want to come off as nosy, but may I please see some of your poetic writing?”  
I smiled a bit.  
“Okay. It’s pretty random, I would say, and I’m trying to tie it all together.” I reached back into my purse to take out my journal.  
“Is it now?” he asked me, smirking slightly and taking another bite of muffin.  
I nodded as I flipped to a random page, and then immediately spotted what I was looking for.  
“It’s like excerpts and bits and pieces of things that came to mind immediately. I’ve been working on this since summer.”  
“That’s kind of how I wrote Koda: four excerpts of songs that I wrote and then pieced together under one moniker.”  
I cleared my throat and began to read from my journal—something I never do with anyone until now:  
“The sun never shines on me,  
All I can see is the light on the curtains,  
An ethereal sky on a black background…  
A thousand shades of grass against the midnight sun.  
Who will save the sane?  
Destroy and rebuild the world  
To save myself…”  
“Interesting,” he said in a low voice, dropping his gaze. “It sounds like someone who’s trapped and is calling out for help.”  
“I don’t know what my intention is,” I confessed. “I’m a visual artist, not a writer by career.”  
He glanced at me with those beautiful green eyes, those jade-colored irises with flecks of viridian like two soulful, delicate kaleidoscopes that I could never taint with the poison of lies… He gazed deep into my eyes, like tapping into my soul to figure me out…  
“You want to escape,” he said out of the blue. “You have lived a life of tragedy for far too long, and it only emerges from your art, whether your art is drawing, or in writing. You have faced your problems, and you have faced them enough times, but they are so overwhelming for you, that you only end up wanting to run again…”  
“…and I’m hard on myself as a result, because I know I’m better than that, and I only end up kicking myself down even more, and it’s a vicious cycle,” I finished his sentence again. “And I was also born with less serotonin than the average person, so I get depressed relatively easily.”  
“So you vent through your art. It’s an escape, and yet you profess exactly how you feel inside. It can’t hurt you and it sets you free. You created a world of magic—”  
“—because my real life is tragic.”  
Ben turned his head and gazed down to the floor. I had a feeling as to what he was thinking, but I wasn’t sure what…  
“You and I should get away together, you know, just you and me, but no one can ever know about us,” he whispered to me. I smiled: I felt correctly.  
“Where do you want to go?” I asked him.  
“You said you were from Reno?”  
“Yes.”  
“We should go there. Better yet, that whole area, Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe… because I’ve only checked out so much of that place, but I want to see it through your eyes. I wanna know: I want you to show me—”  
“Is that the sun?” I heard Leah ask.  
I turned my head to the front windows: the first rays of new daylight caressed the buildings outside. We had talked all night long, and neither of us were the least bit tired. I placed my books back into my purse, and then got to my feet. Ben pushed himself up, and towered next to me.  
“—I better get going though, before Jeffrey and I get in trouble,” Mike told Court. He got to his feet and stepped over to Jeff and Leah.  
“So after Reno then what?” I asked Ben.  
He peered up for a moment.  
“How ‘bout we improvise,” he replied, “because our doors are open—”  
“What are you two birds gonna do?” Mike asked us. We glanced at each other, staring deep into each other’s eyes once again.  
“Ohhh, that’s for us and us only to know. We’ll send you a postcard, though,” Ben said vaguely. He flashed a wink at me. I could feel my face warm once again.  
He rested a hand on Kim’s shoulder and shook him awake. “Hey, man, wake up. You fell asleep in the recliner…”  
“I did?” Kim asked drowsily, rubbing his eyes, “okay… I’m getting up…”  
The seven of us stepped outside—Ben and I thanking the cashier first—into the clear, crisp Seattle morning.  
“So what are you guys doing?” Kim asked us, yawning.  
“We’re going on a little trip,” Ben explained in his low voice, “to the Reno area, and then any place where we can call living.”  
“Awesome. Well, it was wonderful meeting you, dear, and—” Kim glanced around to see if anyone was watching. “—you guys are going to have fun together, I just know it.”  
“Thank you, Kim, and it was an honor to meet you. Now you better not tell anyone about us.”  
“Oh, I won’t. You can count on me.”  
Ben and I both gave Kim a friendly hug and then turned our heels and walked away.


	13. Chapter 13

“I’m sorry?” Ben blinked twice, staring at Hannah.  
“I mean…” I glanced up at her to see her face beginning to glow bright red.   
“…okay, Ben,” she choked out in a low voice.  
He furrowed his brow a bit, and then nodded.  
“Help me up,” I reached out her hands for them to help me up. We walked out from around the corner, into the hallway, and into the front room, where the three of them were reaching for their coffee mugs.  
I sat back down next to Jeff; Hannah next to Ben; Court next to Mike.  
“You want anything, Kim?” Mike asked him.  
“No, thanks, man, I’m good,” Kim replied, who seated himself in a recliner across the floor from Ben and me. He opened up a dark green paperback book: Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Good poetry!  
Jeff reached for his coffee mug and took a sip. He gazed off into space. I so desperately wanted to know what he was thinking. He could probably feel me looking at him because he dropped his gaze to the floor.  
“Penny for your thoughts, Jeffrey?” I asked him, catching him off-guard.  
“Huh? Oh…” his face reddened slightly yet again.  
I lowered my head to get a better view of him.  
“I’m—I’m—” he stammered.  
I leaned forward.  
“I’m—”  
“Yes?”  
“I… was just going to ask you…” He hesitated.  
I widened my eyes and raised my eyebrows.  
“Nah, nevermind, it’s not important.”  
“What if it is?” I asked him.  
“No, it’s not,” he replied.  
“But what if it is?” I cocked my head to the side on the word “is”.  
“What’d you think of that kiss?” he whispered almost immediately.  
I gaped at him slightly.  
“Do you really want me to—” I was about to ask him that, but I bit my tongue and stopped myself.  
“No… that’s not what you were going to ask me. That’s not it. It’s something else. What if it’s something else that I should know? What if it’s something else that you and I should both know? What if it’s something that you should definitely know? Like, what if it has something to do with your bandana?”  
He set his left hand on his jeans pocket.  
“Don’t even—” he lowered his head yet again.  
“What?” I asked playfully.  
He pursed his lips together and coiled back a bit. I could see his face continuing to turn into the color of a red stoplight. He reached forward and took a bite of scone.  
“What if I make you put it on your head?”  
“I’d have to take my hat off,” he replied. “And I don’t really want to because we all know how that went…”  
“How what went?” I asked him dumbly.  
He squinted slightly at me.  
“Or what if I put it on my face like a bank robber?”  
“Or like a—BARON ROBBER!”  
He turned his head to see Ben and Hannah snuggled down next to each other on the far end of the couch, like two baby bunnies in a nest. He must have seen me creep towards his left pocket to pickpocket him of his bandana out of the corner of his eye because he whipped back around to stop me: we met eyes yet again.  
“…don’t choke on me, Court…” I heard Mike say.  
“What?” I said out loud.  
“Huh?” Mike turned to me, and raised an eyebrow.  
“I…” Jeff’s face was as red as a tomato.  
Court set her mug down to look at us.  
“What is even going on?”  
“Man, it just got really quiet over there,” Kim looked up at the four of us, lowering his book.  
Ben and Hannah turned to look, but the two of them both had this expression as if they were in another world.  
Court said something but I couldn’t quite tell over my own heartbeat.  
“Nevermind, it’s not important,” I heard Mike tell her.  
Jeff returned to me.  
“The power of taking things out of context, man,” he muttered.  
“Tell me about it…” I agreed with him, staring at him straight in the eye. “It’s like when you’re walking past something and wonder what context it was in—”  
“Or when you’re looking at a crazy picture of Soundgarden and you wonder what context that was in?”  
“Yeah! Or it’s like when you say the word ‘fuck’ thirty times and people are wondering what the hell is going on?”  
I totally giggled at that very thought. He grinned that cute little smile of his.  
“Now what were you going to ask me?” I started up yet again.  
“I can’t even remember now,” he replied: obvious liar.  
“Yeah, right,” I sneered.  
“No, really.”  
I shook my head like Stone and then took another sip of coffee.  
“What if I took your hat again?”  
“No!” he reached up and set a hand on his hat, thinking ahead of me.  
“Wellllllllllll… what if I made you tie your bandana around your face like one of those old-timey robbers?”  
He reached into his pocket, and took out his bandana, and tied it around the lower part of his face like a bandit from the Old West. Then he pointed his index fingers at me like a couple of pistols.  
I glanced down at them, and then up at him.  
“I hope those fingers aren’t loaded,” I said to him softly.  
“Loaded…” he echoed, emphasizing “load.”  
It took me a minute, and then I wrinkled my nose.  
“You’re sick!”  
He lowered his head in shame.  
“Wait, hang on a second, now—!” he reached out to take another bite of scone, lowering the bandana from his mouth.  
“You’re worse,” he pointed out, squinting at me yet again.  
“Now why would you think something like that?”  
“Because I know,” he admitted with a hint of sinister tone to his voice, “I know what you’re like.”  
“No, you don’t,” I said quickly.  
“I—” He then pulled up his legs and sat in a kneeled position in front of me, and then flashed his finger pistols back at me.  
“I’m the Baron Robber, now stick ‘em up. If you can get a kiss out of me, I can get what you’re really like out of you.”  
“No, you can’t,” I retorted. I did the same: pulled my legs up and kneeled in front of him, like we were about to play patty cake.  
“Oh, yes, I can. I can get anything out of anyone, no matter what! Mwah!”  
“Wait…” I stopped, holding up a hand. Something caught my eye…  
“What?”  
“Is that the sun?”  
Sure enough, the sun began to rise and kiss the buildings and streets of Seattle with warm rays of new daylight. We had messed with each other all night long.  
Mike and Court got to their feet; he walked over to us and stopped, only to see Jeff with his bandana around his face like an old-timey bandit.  
“I’m not even going to ask,” Mike said, almost in shock, shaking his head.  
“You don’t want to know,” Jeff replied.  
“We need to get to the studio before we get into trouble.”  
He glanced at his watch, and noticed the time.  
“Oh, crapola, we do!” He glanced back at me. “Next time?”  
“Hell’s yeah,” I answered with little smirk.  
The two of us got to our feet as Ben woke up Kim, who had fallen asleep in the recliner. Jeff took off his bandana, folded it, and slipped it back into his pocket. The seven of us walked out into the cool crisp morning.  
“So…” I began.  
“Next time?” he interrupted.  
“That’s what you were going to ask me?”  
“Yeah. Let’s do this again, this was kinda fun.”  
I continued to smirk.  
“I agree, Jeffrey.”  
Jeff and I were going to do this again, and it was only going to be a matter of time for each of us.  
With that, Mike and Jeff walked back to where they were parked to drive to the studio, bearing in mind that they had to get back to work and Jeff and I were going to have another round at things. Court and I made our way back to the bus stop. Kim crossed the street to make the stroll back to his home for breakfast. And Ben and Hannah… well, Ben and Hannah stepped out into the sunrise together, and they were going to something together but they wouldn’t tell us. We only had to find out what they were doing.


End file.
